This invention relates generally to event scheduling logic and, in particular, to apparatus and methods used by remote reminder operations within event scheduling logic.
Historically people have used calendar books made of paper to organize their appointments by physically writing in appointments as they are made. This procedure can prevent the person from double booking a particular time, that being scheduling two or more events in the same time period. Further, the calendar book can be used as a quick reference to remind a person of the appointments that have previously been made.
As the world has moved away from recording information on paper with the computer revolution, scheduling software programs were developed that could electronically record a person""s appointments. These scheduling programs, that typically operate on a person""s personal computer, come in many varieties, but most of them have similar key features. One of the key features that these scheduling programs provide that the equivalent paper calendar books do not is the ability to set a time for the user to be reminded of an appointment and the ability to automatically remind the user of such appointments at the specified time. This removes the need for the user to regularly check the schedule program in order to determine imminent appointments. Using paper calendar books, the user or another person such as a secretary must regularly check the calendar book to ensure that no appointments are missed.
There are a number of well-known methods for scheduling programs to remind a user that an appointment is upcoming. The most popular of these well-known methods is to display a text message on the display screen corresponding to the personal computer the scheduling program is being run on and optionally to initiate an audible alert signal. Assuming the particular computer is currently powered and the user is currently local to the computer, the user should be able to hear the alert signal and then read the text message; hence remembering the appointment that is scheduled at the time specified. Problems occur when the computer is not powered and/or the user is not local to the computer.
One method to overcome the problem of the personal computer not being powered is to relocate the scheduling program to a central server such as an Internet Protocol (IP) server. In this case, the scheduling program is accessed through the Internet with individual subscribers setting up a scheduling account with the IP server. This removes the need for the user""s personal computer to be powered at the time of the required reminder, but at the same time complicates the procedure used to remind the user of the appointment. One reminding technique that is used with the implementation of the scheduling program within an IP server is to send an email message to an address specified by the user at the time indicted for the user to be reminded. Unfortunately, to receive an email, the person would still typically need to be logged onto a computer and so there is still a need for a more mobile reminding procedure.
There is a variation to the email reminder system described above that enables the scheduling programs currently being operated on the Internet to become more mobile. This system requires a user to have a pager capable of displaying text messages and that has a corresponding email address. The scheduling program, when an appointment requires a reminder to be sent, sends an email containing the text message reminder to the pager""s email address with the pager subsequently alerting the user and displaying the message.
There are a number of problems with this system of paging people reminders. For one, not everybody who may need mobile schedule reminding capabilities has a pager. Further, the majority of current pagers have only limited functionality such that extensive text messages cannot be displayed. Yet further, not everybody who has a pager carries the pager constantly, hence resulting in people missing important appointment reminders.
Another important problem with current reminder systems is the lack of intelligence utilized. The current scheduling programs can send a display message to a display screen of a personal computer, send an email notification to a user""s email account, or page the person with text reminders. The problem with these reminder techniques is the inability of these systems to determine if the user actually receives the appointment reminder and the inability of the programs therefore to react if the user does not receive the appointment reminder.
A modification to a scheduling program in which event reminders are sent via the telephone network is disclosed. In this case, if a reminder must be sent, a telephone session is initiated between the computer in which the scheduling program is operating and the user""s telephone station. Next, the event reminder is preferably converted from a text format to an audible format with use of a text-to-voice converter and sent to the user""s telephone station in order to be heard by the user. In another embodiment, the appointment reminder is saved in an audible format so that no text-to-voice conversion is required prior to sending the reminder to the user""s telephone station.
Further, a modification made to a scheduling program in which event reminders are sent in series and/or parallel using a variety of different reminder techniques is also disclosed. These reminder techniques include, but are not limited to, displaying a text message on a computer screen, sending an email message, sending a page text message, and sending audible voice messages to one of a voice mail account, work telephone, home telephone, and wireless telephone. Preferably, the present invention allows a user to select preferences including a priority order that dictates the sequence in which reminder techniques are to be attempted. A number of the reminder techniques preferably have confirmation requirements such that if such a confirmation is not returned, the next reminder technique in the priority order is initiated.
The present invention, according to a first broad aspect, is a computing apparatus arranged to be coupled through a network to at least one telephone station, the computing apparatus comprising event scheduling logic. The event scheduling logic stores event reminders, each event reminder including a remind time parameter and an event reminder text message. The event scheduling logic further monitors to determine if any of the remind time parameters are met. The event scheduling logic yet further, if one of the remind time parameters is met, initiates a telephone session between the computing apparatus and a predetermined telephone station coupled to the network, converts the event reminder text message corresponding to the reminder time parameter that is met to an event reminder audio message, and transmits the event reminder audio message, via the network, to the predetermined telephone station.
In preferred embodiments, the computing apparatus of the first broad aspect comprises a memory device, a processing device and a telephone line interface. The memory device stores the event reminders. The processing device, coupled to the memory device, monitors to determine if any of the remind time parameters are met and converts the event reminder text message to the event reminder audio message. Further, the processing device operates to control all the other operations of the event scheduling logic. The telephone line interface, coupled to the processing device and arranged to be coupled to a telephone line coupled to the network, initiates the telephone session and transmits the event reminder audio message, via the network, to the predetermined telephone station.
The present invention, according to a second broad aspect, is a computing apparatus comprising event scheduling logic. The event scheduling logic stores event reminders, each event reminder including a remind time parameter and an event reminder message. The event scheduling logic further monitors to determine if any of the remind time parameters are met. The event scheduling logic yet further, if one of the remind time parameters is met, initiates a first attempt to provide the event reminder message corresponding to the remind time parameter that is met to a user with use of a first reminder operation means, determines if the first attempt is successful and, if the first attempt is not successful, initiates a second attempt to provide the particular event reminder message to the user with use of a second reminder operation means.
In further aspects, the present invention is a computer readable memory that stores the event scheduling logic according to one of the first and second broad aspects and a method of performing an event scheduling operation according to one of the first and second broad aspects.
For preferred embodiments, the computing apparatus according to the first and second broad aspects is a personal computer. In alternative embodiments, the computing apparatus is a central server coupled to a packet-based network such as the Internet. In these alternative embodiments, the computing apparatus preferably comprises event scheduling that is capable of operating for a plurality of users.